MCN DVD Reviews: November 17, 2009

..MCN Weekend

Bruno: Blu-ray

British comedian Sacha Baron Cohen is a remarkably gifted mimic and prankster. In his multiple guises, he’s fooled hundreds of reliably gullible targets into believing he’s the hip-hop poseur, Ali G; the Kazakhstani journalist, Borat Sagdiyev; or, here, the drippingly gay Austrian fashionista, Brüno. All three regularly appeared in short sketches on cable’s Da Ali G Show, and they now can claim feature credits, as well.

Overall, I’d say Bruno’s contribution ranks between “Borat” and “Ali G Indahouse,” which played more like an extended “Mr. Bean” sketch than anything else. It’s intermittently hilarious, to be sure. Too often, though, it’s no more entertaining than the average float in a Gay Pride parade. America’s Next Top Model and Project Runway have made redundant most of Bruno’s shtick, including being barred from the Milan fashion scene for wearing an ultra-sticky Velcro outfit in a show. Nor, is it out of the question that lederhosen hot pants might soon become a fashion statement, for real. It’s in small bites that Bruno not only is funny, but also cringe-inducing. During interviews with the parents of perspective child actors, Bruno gets them to admit they’d allow their kids to risk great physical harm, if it meant getting a part.

His bizarre exchanges with a real Hollywood talent agent – maybe the one likeable guy in the profession – also explain a lot about the inner workings of show biz. Likewise, a reformed Bruno convinces a rabid crowd of wrestling fans that he’s a raging homophobe, until the moment he starts making out with an opponent in a steel-cage ring. On the other hand, it’s easy to muster sympathy for the politicians in whose presence Bruno disrobes, the English-challenged interviewees he peppers with dopey double-entendres and the actors who are required to use Mexican gardeners as chairs. It’s “Candid Camera,” without the big “reveal” at the end of the bit. This helps explain why the material that was deleted, and is included in the bonus features, often is more amusing than that included in the feature. Unlike Borat, Bruno simply isn’t capable of holding our attention for a full 80 minutes. That said, though, the Blu-ray edition adds another 70 minutes of deleted, alternate and extended scenes, many of them better than those that made the final cut; picture-in-picture commentary by the actor and director Larry Charles; an update with the befuddled talent agent; a digital disc; and BD Live capability. – Gary Dretzka

The Exiles
Notes on Marie Menken

Milestone Films continues to serve the international arthouse audience in ways that are as surprising as they are essential to the preservation of endangered cinematic treasures. Movies once thought lost or irreparably damaged often find their way onto Milestone’s list of coming attractions, as big- and small-screen entertainments and prime examples of the miracles performed by archivists and restoration technicians.

Among the distribution company’s many intriguing titles are Legong: Dance of the Virgins, Tabu: A Story of the South Seas, Picadilly, Chang: A Drama of the Wilderness, I Am Cuba, Grass: A Battle for Life and, now in theaters, Araya. The 2007 release of Charles Burnett’s long-ignored masterpiece, Killer of Sheep, probably did more than any other film to put Milestone on the map. The Exiles, which likewise described the life of disenfranchised Los Angelenos, deserves the same kind of attention.

Kent MacKenzie’s film described a day in the life of a group of American Indians, enduring a hard-scrabble life in the run-down Bunker Hill section of downtown L.A. The characters had elected to leave their respective reservations, based on Uncle Sam’s promise that a better life could be found in the country’s urban melting pots. Instead, they discovered that poverty wasn’t a curse reserved exclusively for those who remained on their largely ignored native homelands. The men worked as day laborers, when they worked at all, and spent most of their free time playing cards, smoking, bar-hopping, cruising in their convertibles and listening to jitterbug music. The women had found better jobs, but were required to spend their off-time dealing with crying babies and husbands looking for a handout.

MacKenzie, who died in 1980, wasn’t going for pity when he set out to make Exiles. If nothing else, the men were having too good of a time to worry about such inconveniences as cirrhosis of the liver and dying penniless. With its in-your-face camera work and shadowy look, Exiles was an example of the new cinema being forwarded by John Cassavetes and European directors who preferred to shoot in the streets, not in studios, and found exciting ways to make black-and –white beautiful. The movie also showcases a then-current hepcat culture that was defined by the characters’ haircuts; tastes in music, cars and clothes; and an overriding passion for partying until the cows came home. They make James Dean look like a Boy Scout, by comparison.

The Milestone package also contains commentary and interviews with Burnett and Indian author/director Sherman Alexie; four of Mackenzie’s short films; video essays on the Angels Flight tram and the rise and abandonment of Bunker Hill; and clips from Thom Andersen's Los Angeles Plays Itself. Much credit is due the UCLA Film and Television Archive, which restored both Exiles and Killer of Sheep.

Notes on Marie Menken documents the career of the New York-based painter and collage artist, who, after becoming infatuated with film making, wielded a Bolex camera as if it were a combination color palette, brush and canvas. Menken was an integral part of the community of experimental/underground filmmakers that included Andy Warhol, Stan Brakhage, Jonas Mekas, Kenneth Anger and Gerard Malanga, all of whom are represented in Martina Kudlácek’s film. Menken would be a worthy subject for a profile, if only because she and her husband were the inspiration for George and Martha in Edward Albee's Who s Afraid of Virginia Woolf. There’s also a lot of material on the early days of Warhol’s original Factory. – Gary Dretzka

My Sister’s Keeper

A very good cast, including a pair of game child actors, does what it can to elevate My Sister’s Keeper above the pack of movies involving terminally ill children and their parents’ struggle to keep them alive. Here, Cameron Diaz and Jason Patric are required to decide how to keep their precious daughter, Kate (Sofia Vassilieva), from eventually succumbing to leukemia. In a decision that reflects the realistic capabilities of modern science, they elect to conceive a genetically engineered child who would be used as a donor of spare parts, er, organs, marrow, blood etc.

The new sister, Anna (Abigail Breslin), willingly complies with her parents’ efforts to save Kate, until the point where the procedures become too painful to endure. Then, Anna employs a lawyer (Alec Baldwin) in her fight to gain the right to make medical decisions on her own. It, of course, opens a Pandora’s Box of ethical questions and moral dilemmas, predicated on the larger question: “Just because we can play God, is it right to do so?” My Sister’s Keeper was directed with his typical sensitivity by Nick Cassavetes, and the Blu-ray edition includes making-of and book-to-film featurettes and additional scenes (also on DVD). – Gary Dretzka

Fight Club: 10th Anniversary Edition: Blu-ray
Kevin Smith Box Set: Blu-ray

Has it only been 10 years since “The first rule of Fight Club is: you do not talk about Fight Club” joined the ranks of movie catch phrases abused to the point of inducing nausea? It has, and hearing the phrase repeated over and over again, a decade later, adds absolutely nothing to the enjoyment of the anniversary Blu-ray edition. That detail acknowledged, though, it’s only fair to mention that Fight Club has made the transition from DVD to hi-def in very good shape, indeed.

The intentionally dark and murky cinematography holds up very well, while DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track will justify viewers’ decision to upgrade their home-theater system. Hearing a person being beaten into a bloody pulp is nearly as disconcerting as watching it being done. Writer Chuck Palahniuk and director David Fincher’s observations on the dilution of the male ego, due to the crushing effects of conformity and consumerism, also remain intact. God knows how many such fight clubs and male-empowerment organizations have sprouted since the movie’s release in 1999, but, perhaps, the rise of full-contact-combat “sports” and television-ready leagues would have been delayed without it.

Blu-ray exclusives include the featurette, A Hit in the Ear: Ren Klyce and the Sound Design of ‘Fight Club’; a clip of Mel Gibson on a horse—wearing a Viking helmet—arriving to bestow the Guy Movie Hall of Fame honor at Spike TV’s 2009 Guys Choice Awards, as well as some backstage stuff; and a searchable index of commentary topics and in-movie references. Both the Blu-ray and two-disc DVD editions add four commentary tracks, 16 behind-the-scenes vignettes; seven altered scenes; publicity materials; and an art gallery.

In 1994, the unexpected success of Clerks allowed writer-director-actor Kevin Smith to live the indie dream and attract the attention of an increasingly youth-conscious Hollywood. As the legend goes, the unrepentant Jersey Boy used the $27,000 he made as a convenience-store clerk to finance an offbeat comedy about the denizens of a mini-mall, not unlike the one in which he labored. It helped define suburban slacker culture and its attendant ennui. It also introduced several members of Smith’s recurring repertory company.

The delightful early bro-mance Chasing Amy was released in the wake of Mallrats, a movie that severely tested Smith’s ability to work within the studio system. In it, the raspy-voiced charmer Joey Lauren Adams played a lesbian who comes between comic-book artists, played by Ben Affleck and Jason Lee. In Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, the title characters trek to Hollywood, where an unauthorized adaptation of the "Bluntman & Chronic" comic is being made into a feature by Miramax. Their adventures are quite funny and include many inspired cameo performances by established stars. There’s plenty of bonus material here, but not much of it is new and exclusive to Blu-ray. The best can be found on the Chasing Amy package – also available a la carte – which adds a new audio commentary, a making-of doc, conversation between Smith and Adams and a recent Q&A interview with Smith and the cast. – Gary Dretzka

The Open Road

It would great to see Jeff Bridges, an actor who deserves a Lifetime Achievement Award as much as anyone, creating larger-than-life characters in important movies. Lately, though, his best efforts have come as a supporting player in such high-profile projects as The Men Who Stare at Goats, Iron Man, the animated Surf’s Up and Seabiscuit. He also was excellent in Tod Williams’ under-appreciated marital drama, The Door in the Floor, alongside Kim Basinger and Mimi Rogers.

But too often, he’s been asked to salvage such lesser projects as The Moguls (a.k.a., The Amateurs), Stick It, A Dog Year and Terry Gilliam’s ill-fated, Tideland. The Open Road belongs in the second grouping. In it, Bridges plays Kyle Garrett, a retired baseball player whose good-ol’-boy demeanor has made him popular on the autograph circuit. Justin Timberlake’s Carlton Garrett is the estranged son of the legend, who’s going through the motions as a minor-league prospect.

After Kyle’s ex-wife falls victim to a serious illness, she asks Carlton to bring his dad to her bedside before undergoing life-threatening surgery. Kyle’s participating in a fans convention, but agrees to accompany his son to Houston. The script demands that, oops, Kyle lose his ID and, thus, is unable to board a waiting plane. Instead, father and son are required to make the drive in a rental car, forcing Mom (Mary Steenburgen) to keep postponing the inevitable operation. Naturally, the trip is interrupted by father-son quarrels and some drunken reveries on Kyle’s part. If that weren’t sufficient grounds for conflict, Carlton also decided to bring along his on-again/off-again girlfriend. Kyle is the kind of Lebowski knock-off could Bridges could play in his sleep. Neither is Timberlake, who proved he could act in Alpha Dog, required to stretch. – Gary Dretzka

The Who, the Mods and the Quadrophenia Connection
Alter Bridge: Live From Amsterdam

At about the same time the Beatles were warming up to lead the British rock-‘n’-roll invasion of America, the country was rocked by a series of events that would make headlines around the world and put England on the pop-cultural map. Besides the exploding music scene, young people were rejecting the complacent, stiff-upper-lip approach to post-war economics doldrums adapted by their parents. They weren’t about to wait any longer to catch up to the Americans they saw having fun on the “telly.”

In the musical realm, rock bands began to play music other than that generated by American blues artists. Many teens and young adults found solidarity within the Mods and Rockers. The Rockers embraced a motorcycle-gang motif, while the Mods rode scooters and dressed like dandies. Both sides engaged willingly in gang wars to establish turf, especially in seaside resort cities. Where the Rockers favored rockabilly, the Mods favored such bands as the Kinks, Small Faces and the Who. Quadrophenia Connection doesn’t waste much time parsing the differences between the rival gangs, preferring to focus on the Mods’ impact on British consumerism and their symbiotic relationship with Pete Townshend and the Who.

The guitarist’s nostalgia for Mod culture would lead a decade later to the album and movie, Quadrophenia, which framed the era through the activities of a single young man. The documentary is informed by the reminiscences of critics, producers and record-industry execs of the time. Most of the video clips are in the public domain, allowing the filmmakers to do everything at bargain-basement prices. The presence of the musicians is missed, but, everything else considered, Connection does a good job.

I’ve never heard of Alter Bridge, but apparently lots of other people have made their acquaintance. The band is comprised of former members of Creed and other kindred outfits. Live From Amsterdam, which had been held up due to a dispute between record labels, was filmed near the end of their 2008 European tour. – Gary Dretzka

Rethink Afghanistan
Virtual JFK: Vietnam If Kennedy Had Lived
MoveOn: The Movie

As President Obama is considering his options in Afghanistan, one hopes he isn’t relying exclusively on the military brass and corporate executives who stand to benefit most from any escalation of what appears to be an unwinnable war. God forbid, he should seek advice from anyone representing the left side of the political spectrum. No other President has done so and look where it’s gotten us lately. Rethink Afghanistan was made by Robert Greenwald and members of the Brave New Foundation, in an effort to counter arguments that have kept our troops in line of fire there for more than eight years.

One of the great guessing games of our time involves President John F. Kennedy and the direction he would have taken in Vietnam if he hadn’t been assassinated. Kennedy had already committed U.S. troops (a.k.a., advisers) to support the corrupt government of South Vietnam. How long, though, would his patience have lasted in the face of the same conditions that greeted his successor, LBJ, while in office? No one knows for sure, but director Koji Masutani has interviewed historians willing to speculate.

Another Brave New documentary, Move On: The Movie chronicles the emergence of the grassroots organization, MoveOn.org, as a major player in American politics.

What began with a single e-mail, we’re told, now can boast a membership of 5 million. Alex Jordanov spent six years researching MoveOn and his film includes testimony from politicians and celebrities, as well as archival and behind-the-scenes footage.

Docurama’s Election Day examines the events of November 2, 2004, through the perspective of 11 widely different constituencies, all with separate visions of how the American electoral system should work. The locations were pre-determined to represent the diversity of America’s various ethnic, economic and political groups. Lots of things have changed since that election, but not the desire of voters to have their voice heard at the polls.

Other new documentaries include the 10-part WWII Remembered, in which veterans offer their own perspective on the last war that made any real sense and rare newsreels and government footage is used to illustrate their contributions. Peter Coyote narrates Soldiers of Conscience, a film that profiles eight American soldiers who are conscientious objectors or would only kill in self-defense. It also contains footage of basic training and the war in Iraq. Lionessdescribes the sometimes contradictory role played by American women in uniform. They law says they can only serve in positions away from the front lines, but things don’t always work out that way in war. – Gary Dretzka

The Barbara Stanwyck Show, Vol. 1
Farscape: The Complete Series
Dawson's Creek: The Complete Series
Rome: The Complete Series: Blu-ray
Drawn Together: Party in Your Box
Eleventh Hour

Barbara Stanwyck was one of several major movie stars whose transition into the world of television was eased by hosting an anthology series. In her most memorable roles, Stanwyck played a tough dame who could hold her own against any man. On TV, she fit the profile of the family matriarch. In the NBC anthology series, “The Barbara Stanwyck Show, she performed alongside such actors as Ralph Bellamy, Milton Berle, Julie London, Lee Marvin, Vic Morrow, Michael Rennie, Robert Strauss and Anna May Wong. Fifteen of the most memorable dramas are collected here. Also included in the set are the unaired pilot, The Sponsor’s Theatre; Stanwyck’s 1961 Emmy acceptance speech for “Best Actress in a Dramatic Series”; and a 20-page booklet.

The sci-fi series Farscape combined live action, CGI effects and characters created at Jim Henson's Creature Shop. This generous boxed set is comprised of 88 episodes from the show’s four seasons, as well as 29 commentaries, several making-of featurettes and documentaries, character profiles, 90 minutes’ worth of deleted scenes, archival photo galleries, production-design galleries and originalTV promos and trailers.

The Dawson’s Creek collection includes all six seasons of the influential WB series, which introduced such future stars as James Van Der Beek, Katie Holmes, Michelle Williams, Joshua Jackson, Kerr Smith, Meredith Monroe and Busy Philipps. In addition to the show’s 127 episodes, the set comes with a comprehensive photo-filled booklet, a bonus disc with behind-the-scenes material and a CD with music from the series.

Rome was one of the most ambitious and expensive projects ever committed to by a television network, including HBO. It told the story of the disintegration of the Republic through the experiences of a pair of soldiers. The Blu-ray gift set offers a Coliseum-size bevy of extras, including copious commentaries; pop-up profiles of the characters and their links to each other; a historical-trivia track; making-of and behind-the-scenes featurettes; dissections of key scenes; and historical backgrounders. It’s a series that died before its time.

Drawn Together: Party in Your Box also gets the complete-series treatment. In addition to all the wacky episodes, the set adds the interactive Truth or Dare and DT’s Drinking Game; a board game in censored and uncensored versions; commentaries; interviews; a karaoke sing-along; and deleted scenes. There’s also a sneak preview of The Drawn Together Movie.

CBS’ Eleventh Hour was Jerry Bruckheimer’s adaptation of the British series of the same name. It featured depictions of how a group of dedicated researchers – is there any other kind? – wrestling with ethical questions as they solve great scientific dilemmas. The show, which lasted one season, starred Rufus Sewell and Marley Shelton.

In other TV-to-DVD news: Natalee Holloway speculates on the disappearance and likely murder of a teenager on a class trip to Aruba, while also depicting the very real crusade of her mother (Tracy Pollan) to uncover the truth and prevent a cover-up. Doomsday 2012 examines the latest perceived threat to mankind, which may or may not derive from an ancient Mayan prophesy, the I Ching and a suspect software program.

Batman: The Brave and the Bold, Vol. 2” finds the venerable superhero battling villains and the temptation of sexy babes; Keeping Up With the Kardashians: The Complete Second Seasonextends the saga of a celebrity family that succeeds without contributing absolutely nothing of value to society. Comedy Central’s Gabriel Iglesias: I'm Not Fat I'm Fluffy was filmed at the historic Plaza Theater in El Paso, Texas. The DVD adds material left out of the recent TV performance. – Gary Dretzka